Monday, December 5, 2011

The Return of Time Fishing!

As was prophesied, I am now ready to return to this world after moving to a new place and getting a job where I don't write about history.

So let's talk a little about history. I'm going to do something like what I described in one of my last posts, where I'll blog single photos through most of the week and write longer posts as I come to them, usually for exploration of small towns or whatnot. Since I live in Little Rock now, there's an abundance of unexplored neighborhoods and areas to provide ample snapshot material.

And now for a little bit of movie theater.

More after the jump...

The above is Showtime Cinemas, a three-screen theater in the town of Carmi, Illinois. Jenna and I have driven past it innumerable times in the last half-decade, always on the way to her hometown, Albion. Actually, I might have written about it before...

But I bring it up again because I had the rare occasion a few weeks ago to actually watch a movie in one of the frequently abandoned movie houses I photograph. The movie we saw was The Muppets.

The screen was tiny, the air was muggy and you could hear the thudding bass of the movie next door through the wall. Before the film start, the projectionist had to keep ducking in and out of the projection booth to see if the frame was aligned.

But you know what? There's something to be said about choosing Lo-Fi over the cutting edge spectacles of the Cineplexes. I like to think a greater sense of community existed within the walls of Showtime Cinemas. I felt it as I watched all the native Carmi-folk file in to see the latest Twilight film. (not many were there to see Muppets, sadly.) I liked watching the concession stand folks buzz around to prepare $4 sacks of popcorn - quite a bit less dough than your standard 12-screen fare - and the smiles on their faces as they did so.
It all felt a bit more genuine, I suppose. At least I'd like to think so.

And that slice of identity, the grins of people who know each other, the chattering on the sidewalk after the movies let out ... that's part of what Time Fishing is all about.